Penelope Dransart in her catalog essay13 is the urkhu
100
or anaku, a piece of clothing worn by Aymara
and Chipaya women in parts of northern Chile and
Bolivia. This garment, composed of two panels of
woven wool sewn edge to edge on the sides, is an
example of a modern adaptation of a traditional
Pre-Hispanic model. Even though this tradition is,
of course, secondary to mass-manufactured cardigans,
the contemporary production is ongoing and
the garments continue to be used both ceremonially
and in daily life, continuing the tradition of the
sumptuous Aymara textiles that were produced
throughout the entire nineteenth century.14
Pre-Columbian textiles as a whole constitute
a primordial source for the comprehension of
Pre-Columbian peoples because they provide significant
technical, iconographic, and aesthetic information.
Their often excellent state of preservation
makes them a unique and invaluable repository of
evidence that enables us to understand more about
many aspects of the lives of Pre-Hispanic peoples.
This is not limited to the state of their knowledge
of weaving techniques but rather lends insights into
their daily lives and routines through the clothing
they made, their beliefs through the iconography
expressed on the textiles, and their cultural and
political development through the movements of
the raw materials people used to manufacture them
over the course of more than 5,000 years of history.
They reveal an incredible palette of colors with
nuanced hues from pink to peacock blue, myriad
and often complex and technically advanced designs
that reveal an elaborate iconography, as well
as fi elds of color that are strikingly modernistic—
far ahead of their time in terms of their aesthetic
impact and evocative of paintings by Rothko or
Soulages. Through future excavations, the advent
of new scientifi c techniques, and the tenacity of
researchers, we expect to continue to learn more
about these peoples and their customs while at the
same time examining and analyzing past misconceptions
and historical events. The Inca and their
illustrious ancestors have not fi nished dazzling us.
NOTES
1. This lack of recognition is all the more striking in light of the
fact that many noteworthy exhibitions have been produced
on the subject in recent years. Two of the most important
of these have been Paracas: trésors inédits du Pérou ancien
at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in 2008 and
more recently Balance and Opposition in Peruvian Textiles
at the Saint Louis Art Museum, published in the autumn issue
of this magazine.
2. The so-called “Mantle of Moctezuma” is a large feather
cape that is held in the collection of the Musée Royal
d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels. Beginning in the eighteenth
century, this masterpiece of featherwork was attributed to
Moctezuma II, the famous sixteenth-century Aztec emperor.
Nearly two hundred years elapsed before the piece was
fi nally accurately attributed to the Tupinambá people of
Brazil.
3. A manto (mantle in English) is a loose-fi tting garment
without sleeves worn over other clothing for protection
against the cold. These are often found wrapped around
bodies in funerary bundles.
4. Elena Phipps, “Traditions vestimentaires dans les Andes:
structure, genre et identité,” in Serge Lemaitre (ed.), Inca:
Textiles et parures des Ande, Ghent: Éditions Ludion/
Brussels: Musée royal d’Art et d’Histoire, 2018.
FIG. 24 (right): Coca bag.
Inca, Peru. AD 1450–1532.
Camelid wool, cotton. 81 x 89 cm
(excluding string).
Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
© Linden-Museum Stuttgart.
Photo: A. Dreyer.
FEATURE
Inca Dress Code The catalog for the Inca Dress
Code exhibition at the Musée Royal d’Art et d’Histoire in
Brussels is the source for much of the information presented
in this article. This catalog provides an overview of Andean
textiles through a collection of essays penned by a variety of
experts. Inca Dress Code, the museum’s catchy title for the
exhibition, is a blockbuster show that includes nearly 250
artworks, most from the museum’s collection, supplemented
with borrowed works from the Museum aan de Stroom in
Antwerp, the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart, and the Musée
du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris, as well as material
from private collections. The exhibition provides a complete
and comprehensive, chronologically organized presentation
structured in three parts. The fi rst explains Pre-Columbian
Andean textiles and their creation (different production techniques,
iconography, codifi cations, raw materials, etc.) and
highlights the mastery and skill of the Andean weavers. The
second part of the exhibition, installed in a 900-square-meter
gallery, presents textile masterpieces and examines their pervasive
infl uence on other art forms. The third examines the techniques
that were in use during the colonial period, contrasting
textiles with the other objects of the time, and goes on to shed
light on the changes in design while focusing on the traditional
techniques that have been maintained into the present day
through the presentation of a few contemporary examples.
The exhibition, presented in English, French, and Dutch, is
on view through March 24, 2019, and is accompanied by a
series of lectures and workshops. An international colloquium
on Pre-Columbian textiles will also be held in March, and
its guests will include specialists and experts from around the
world. It promises to be a must-attend event for those with an
interest in the subject.